To cope with recent crime of identity theft, an official identification, to which an IC chip including an electronic signature is mounted, such as an IC passport, an IC driver's license, and the like has been recommended to use.
For this official identification, when data of the IC chip is read out, an IC authentication is performed by a password such as a PIN (Personal Identification Number) code or the like. When the user forgets this password, the user is not allowed to access the IC chip. Hence, an authenticity determination using the electronic signature, that is, an IC authentication is not conducted.
Therefore, various technologies are presented. In one technology, a portable medium is prepared to record medium identification information for identifying the medium itself other than an authentication IC card being the official identification, and the medium identification information is stored by associating it with the password. In another technology, an IC authentication is used by using the password being associated with biometric information. In a further technology, the password is encrypted by using biometric information.